1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, and, more particularly, to a release mechanism for facilitating cartridge installation and removal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical ink jet printer forms an image on a print medium by ejecting ink from a plurality of ink jetting nozzles of an ink jet printhead to form a pattern of ink dots on the print medium. The ink jet printhead may be formed integral with a cartridge containing a supply of ink, thus forming a supply cartridge, and more particularly, a printhead cartridge. Such an ink jet printer typically includes a reciprocating printhead carrier that mounts one or more printhead cartridges in respective receptacles. Once mounted, the printhead carrier carriers the printhead cartridges across the print medium along a bi-directional scanning path defining a print zone of the printer. A sheet feeding mechanism is used to incrementally advance the print medium sheet in a sheet feed direction, also commonly referred to as a sub-scan direction, through a print zone between scans in the main scan direction, or after all data intended to be printed with the print medium at a particular stationary position has been completed.
Some printers include on the printhead carrier a cover, e.g., lid, and latch arrangement for mounting and retaining a printhead cartridge in its respective receptacle in the printhead carrier. Efforts have been made to make the cover and latch arrangements more user friendly, but often times the cover and latch arrangements are not intuitive to operate.
What is needed in the art is an easy to use release mechanism for facilitating cartridge installation and removal in a printhead carrier.